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ORATION 



j^]\j:]e:s si^eed, 



UPON THE 



ITsTAUGURATION OF THE BUST OF 



ABEAHAM LINCOL:^^, 



At Louisville, K3-., February 12, 1867. 



LOUISVILLE: 

BRADLEY & GILBERT, CORNER THIRD AND GREEN STREETS. 

1867. 



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^^^^^•^^^■•^•■•'^^"P»*^«*'*"W*W*^'»»*^**WipW^»*«W**W* 



ORATION 



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UPON THE 



IKAUGURATIOE" OF THE BUST OF 



ABEAHAM LINCOLl^. 



At Loiiteville, Ky., February 12, 1867. 




LOUISVILLE: 

BEADLEY & GILBEET, COENER THIED AND GREEN STEEETS. 

1867. 



ORATION. 



Mr. Chairman, and Ladies and Gentlemen : 

I am embarrassed because I knew, admired, and loved Abraham 
Lincoln. Ilis hold upon the deepest and truest feelings of my 
nature was and still remains so strong and firm that I cannot push 
him and his memory so far off as to catch and give a complete de- 
lineation of his character. His personal friendship was so true 
and warm, and his manifestations of it so unaffected, simple, and 
eniragino;, that his friends never could retire far enoujrh from him 
to appreciate the colossal proportions of the man; they feel to- 
ward him and his memory as did David toward Jonathan; their 
love for him passes the love of women. 

The beautiful bust which has been just unveiled gives the be- 
holder a truthful idea of the outer man. The accomplished artist 
has done all that genius and skill, stimulated by love and admira- 
tion for his subject, could to perpetuate the impression of Mr. 
Lincoln's appearance. The biographer and historian must record 
his deeds, and the judgment of the world determine whether they 
were for the good or ill of mankind; I will assume the humble 
task of trjing to make you acquainted with the inner man, as I 
saw and knew him. 

In early life Mr. Lincoln had to bear and struggle with poverty 
and obscurity, a fortune not uncommon with distinguished men in 
America. Cheerfully and with persistent courage, he surmounted 
those difficulties. No vulgar ambition called him to the labor which 
resulted in success. A high sense of duty to himself, his family, 
his country, mankind, and to God, made him consecrate himself 
to pursuits which illustrated his power.^, and attracted the atten- 
tion, first of his neighb6rs, then of his State, then of the nation, 
and finally of the world. You may remember, it was not the 
fierce blustering wind that made the traveler drop his cloak, but 



[4] 

the steady shining of the quiet sun — no boisterous exT^iibition of 
imagined powers, claiming a reward for assumed importance, but 
the persistent exercise of high and generous impulses in all the 
lines of life, secured for him that regard which ultimately placed 
him in the ranks of the foremost men of his day. 

Discarding the ostentation and pretense of the vulgarly ambi- 
tious, he bent all the energies of an honest and earnest nature to 
the development of such powers as God had given him, conscious 
that the highest aim of man is to perfect himself, and not merely 
to occupy a place ; and it was this which gave him so strong a 
hold upon the confidence and affections of the American people, 
and in it consisted much of the power he unconsciously exercised 
over all who came within the range of his personal influence. 

A strong sense of duty, impelled by an ardent love of truth, 
justice, and freedom, was the feeling which ever swayed Mr. Lin- 
coln in private and public life; love of truth made him tolerant of 
the opinions of others — he judged not lest he might be judged; 
love of justice made him not only unselfish, but generous, and his 
judgments sure ; and love of freedom made him ever ready to ac- 
knowledt^e the rights of the humblest as well as the most exalted. 
His nature was too purely noble to feel, or even suspect, that his 
privileges would be diminished, or his dignity lessened by accord- 
ing to others that which was their due. 

Hannibal, when a boy, was made by his father to swear eternal 
enmity to Rome. The Carthagenian's hatred destroyed his coun- 
try, and the Carthagcnian name perished from the earth. Mr. 
Lincoln saved his country by love, and his name will linger coeval 
•with its duration. 

His character was the legitimate product of American institu- 
tions. Step by step he ascended from the humblest to the highest 
position. His elevation was not an accident. The student of his 
life must see that he was the child of progress, as the student of 
our institutions must acknowledge that they are founded on the 
law of progress. Not the irregular and revolutionary efforts that 
would pull down rather than build up, but that progress that would 
wisely use the debris of the past to fertilize the soil for the com- 
ing seasons, the healthy and life-giving progress which comes 



from a clearer and broader view of human rights and a larger ex- 
perience, inducing a prudent eifort to rectify, not destroy; the 
progress which makes the lessons and wisdom of our fathers the 
pedestal upon which brighter and higher hopes are to be realized 
in the future ; the progress which springs from a sense of duty, 
and makes us ever recognize " that from any fruition of success, no 
matter what, shall come forth something to make a greater struggle 
necessary." As the child of progress, Mr. Lincoln's character 
grew and developed in obedience to its surroundings. Ilis was a 
life of growth and expansion from the cradle to the grave. There 
are many lives like to certain streams, larger at their source than 
ever after. They start off with some promise from the parent 
fountain, but receiving no wayside accessions to their strength, 
are gradually absorbed, or stagnate and sink, having refreshed no 
living thing, vegetable or animal. Mr. Lincoln's life was not one 
of these. Originating in the lower slopes of the mountains, and, 
by that law of progress which was native to him, and fostered by 
the institutions of the country, cutting itself a channel through 
fertile lands, it swelled into a majestic river, adding beauty and 
richness to all the territory that it touched. 

It has been, and still is, often said that he was a common joker, 
a frivolous jester, wanting in depth and earnestness of character. 
This is not true. In the depths of his soul there was earnestness 
as true and pure as ever inspired a human breast. He was fond 
of a story — joking was a relief to him ; he used jokes as JEsop 
did fables. Wit is often hard and harsh ; humor is ever allied to 
kindness. A striking characteristic of the man was this infinite 
humor ; it was as exhaustless as the benevolence in his heart. 
The generosity of the blind Persian, who gave away his slave to 
the traveler who needed a guide, is hardly more extravagant than 
a thousand good deeds that illustrate the large heartcdness of Mr. 
Lincoln ; and the laugh under the genial glow of his humor, was 
as impulsive and certain as the sound from the statute of Mcmnon 
under the touch of sunlight. Their joint influence enabled him 
to smooth many a rough pathway for others, while they lit up 
many a dark moment in his own eventful life. Across his way of 
life there ran no Shasta stream, encrusting with stone the very 



[6] 

flowers which bloomed upon its borders. From his nature flowers 
sprang wanton. 

The newspapers tell us that the workmen on the basement of 
Pompey's pillar found inscriptions dating beyond the period of 
its erection. So, in searching into human character, we often 
find foundation-precepts, not open to the casual observer, which 
antedate its own development. These foundation-precepts were 
too deeply engraved ever to be erased from the heart of him 
whose impulses and whose powers were consecrated to Right, and 
Honor, and Truth. Upon the basement stones which support the 
noble superstructure to which the American people look with pride 
to-day, were written words of Wisdom from the Book of Life. 

In human as in physical geology, there is generally very little 
difiiculty in discovering the character of metal under the surface. 
It is so usually shallow as to glitter in the eyes of all, but now and 
then the superstrata covers up a deep mine of rich ore, and, while the 
indications of its existence are all satisfactory, we are often long 
baffled in search of it; but when the vein is opened and its value 
tested, the reward comes, for it is worked np into a crown of glory, 
which shines far down through the ages, cheering all along its 
pathway of light. Those who shall be in the Great Hereafter, 
will be encouraged by his example and life to hope and search for 
a brighter light and higher glory. 

Mr. Lincoln was as unselfish, as free from envy, jealousy, and 
malice as any man that ever lived. When he said, " Vv^ith malice 
toward none, and charity for all; with firmness in the right as 
God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work," 
it was no figure of speech, but a true copy from the tablet of his 
heart. 

He was attached to no church, and held no especial creed of 
faith, and yet his nature was deeply religious. Faith in the prov- 
idence of God, and in the ultimate and complete triumph of the 
right, whether as he or others saw it, the right as God ordained 
it, gave him courage and hope. Afiiictions to man or nation were? 
according to his faith, sent by God in retribution or for their pu- 
rification. Feeling that all things are ordained by an All- Wise 
Providence, he l)ore the burden imposed without a murmur or 
comphiint. 



I 



[ ' ] 

Mr. Lincoln was not a learned man, nor did he pretend to be. 
That education vdiich comes from severe and earnest thought, he 
had. "Without pretending to scholarly attainments, by reason of 
his clear conceptions and earnest convictions he uttered sentences 
that will be remembered as long as human feelings and thoughts 
are expressed by language. Though not learned, ho was more 
and better than learned men usually are — he was a v.'ise man. 
"Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers." 

Through all the avenues trodden by multitudes of thinkers and 
Avorkers in every conceivable vocation of life, knowledge comes — 
comes thick and fast, accumulates in great storehouses, priceless in 
value — but it is only here and there in a generation, that the man 
comes whose peculiar organization absorbs the labor of all others, 
assimilates it to himself, and shows what wisdom is. His wisdom 
was shown in his patient waiting for the golden occasion, though 
goaded on by the rashly progressive; his wisdom was shown by 
prompt action when the apt moment came, though vilified by the 
timid and halting conservative ; his wisdom was manifested by his 
determined constancy during the war, though his soul yearned for 
peace ; but higher and above all, his wisdom was shown in this, 
that, though throughout the whole period of that terrible struggle, 
surrounded as he was by the waves of passion which swept over 
the high places of the nation, no moment of the fierce conflict 
found him without the branch of olive; for, while the oak leaves 
were entwined and ready for his brow, his generous heart ever 
turned to the olive rather than the oak, and high above the storm 
which raged with such relentless fury, rose the spirit of his Love to 
all men, visible in its serene height, and^beautiful as the bow which 
to-day, as of old, tells of God's promise to man ; and who can 
say what resistless might and power the vision of that all-embra- 
cing love gave to the one side; and who shall tell how it amazed, 
how it rebuked, how it confounded an unnerved the other. 

Love to God and man is the beginning — it is the end — and it 
contains all that is of human wisdom; and when passion shall 
have subsided, and calmness and quiet come — a period he was only 
permitted to see from Pisgah's heights — the large measure of his 
wisdom will be acknowledged of all men. 



[8] 

The accident of birth gives to Kentucky the glory of his nativ- 
ity ; but we are too proud of his manhood to claim any merit on 
that account, to him or to us. 

The hunter, who, from his valley-cabin, traps an eaglet •'^"^ 
marks it for his own, soon finds that an inborn strength of wing has 
carried it to wider valleys and higher mountains; that the conti- 
nent is its home, and high places its familiar haunts. 

He loved Kentucky as the place of his nativity, and was ever 
ready to manifest his love to her sons and daughters. His patri- 
otism, however, could never be narrowed and dwarfed by State or 
sectional lines, as his love for man Avas never confined, but em- 
braced all who wore God's image. When he uttered the word, 
brethren, there were no understood reservations as to color or 
station — sinned against or sinning, man was his brother; and 
when he said country, he meant the United States of America, 
each and all, as well as those that madly sought to sever the bonds 
that make us one, and thereby fling far off the day of universal 
freedom, as those that remained true to the cause which had his 
love and reverence, and to which he had consecrated his life. 

Mr. Lincoln was simple, artless, true, brave, generous; full ff 
charity in his conceptions of right and duty ; clear, noble, and 
all-embracing, and a faithful worker to accomplish the great and 
good objects of his heart. 

Let Kentucky, his native State, Indiana and Illinois, the States 
of his adoption, the nation, and all mankind, be thankful for his 
life, and sorrow in hi^ death. Let the thanksgiving be genuine 
as the sorrow is real. Philosophy and Religion alike teach us 
that each is a part of liuman destiny, and the heart that fails to 
render the one is lifted less gently from the depths it reaches by 
reason of the other. It is the spirit of thankfulness which gives 
the silver lining to the clouds, which, without it, would darken 
more than half the heavens. Let us look back, then, not all in sor- 
row. It is this backward looking which often gives us brighter 
visions in the future, and in either vista, the backward or the for- 
ward, let us never forget the hand that gave us Abraham Lincoln, 
and which leadeth through green pastures and beside still waters. 



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